Today, the Los Angeles singer-songwriter Tony DV shares “Still Blue,” the opening fanfare to his forthcoming debut album I know trash people who keep the oceans clean, out January 28. Amid a sweetly strange amalgamation of the sounds of his childhood — slickly produced 70s Iranian pop and the crooning harmonies of early aughts indie rock — Tony DV harnesses seam-splitting idiosyncrasies through analog sonics. Watch his recent FLOOD Neighborhoods session, set to the backdrop of the LA River, as a preview. Listen to “Still Blue” here and presave I know trash people who keep the oceans clean here.

“Still Blue” kicks off the record with a barrage of crafty songwriting moves: Opening with a cinematic horn fanfare, the track quickly settles into a desolate strum and 4/4 time signature. Its electric slide guitar drone suggests Damon Albarn, in melancholy balladeer mode, doing an original song for the Dune soundtrack. Major 7th harmonies in the pre-chorus complicate the landscape before giving way to a clarion chorus, an uplifting melody paired with downcast sentiment — encapsulated by an earnest, devastating lyric about the naive notion of closure: “Your pain for my pain / I thought that was the trade.”

Of the track, Tony DV Says, “This song is about the struggle for power and the lame, boring realities of being evil.”

“Charcoal Juice,” another cut from the album, served as a striking introduction as a moody and melodic embrace. He’s also already shared “Buff Boy,” which recalls the economical folk-rock melodies of Andy Shauf or the glistening melancholia of Travis; a joyful exhortation to growing up while still extending love to the kid-like, naive side of oneself and others.

A Los Angeles native, Tony DV is a producer and artist who has dedicated recent years to facilitating others’ visions (Laura Elliott, WHATMORE’s Yoshi T and Jackson August, and the Frank Ocean co-signed Simpson).

However, he found unlikely inspiration for his own music in the LA River. “Most assume the LA River is manmade,” he explains, “it is not. Its current concrete form is the result of humans trying to improve it. Like a bee building a hive, it’s our nature to fortify, eternalize. But what is our responsibility now that we’ve completely dominated the natural world? Does being a good person mean living in opposition of our instincts?”

This observation provided the spark for I know trash people who keep the oceans clean, a project that harnesses his sharpened songwriting acumen to examinations of the tug-of-war between humanity and nature; what’s real and what’s fake; what’s right and what’s wrong. In these dramatic stakes, Tony DV draws out genuine pathos and carves out ebbs of unexpected empathy — hitting on a sound that attains an ornate bigness and distinct character without any sense of overwrought contrivance. It’s a marvelous and lived-in sound, direct but textured with compositional intrigue and philosophical heft.

More to come from Tony DV throughout the year.